Teen driving deaths down from last year after more restrictive guidelines instituted

Twenty-two deaths compared with 57 through April 15

May 02, 2008|By James Janega and Ted Gregory, Tribune reporters

Teen driving deaths fell in Illinois over the first 3 1/2 months of new, more restrictive driving guidelines and peer efforts to raise awareness of fatal risks, state officials said Thursday.

The downshift leaves highway safety experts encouraged but cautioning that the peak teen driving season of proms, summer jobs and holiday road trips is yet to come.

From Jan. 1 through April 15, 22 teens between the ages of 16 and 19 died on Illinois roadways, state figures show, less than half the 57 deaths recorded during the same time period last year.

"This is a great example of how a good idea can save lives," Gov. Rod Blagojevich said.

The sweeping overhaul of Illinois' rules of the road for teens set stringent licensing requirements with the promise of reducing deadly risks. When it took effect Jan. 1, it gave parents a stronger teaching role by tripling the learner's permit period and by targeting risk factors blamed for crashes that nationally kill between 5,000 and 6,000 teens a year. In 2006, the Chicago Tribune highlighted the issues in its Teens at the Wheel series, coverage of which in part led to the tougher laws in Illinois.

"We require more of the parents, more of the schools, more of the driver himself -- and the court system, as well," said Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, whose Teen Driver Safety Task Force made recommendations that underpinned the new effort. "Because of that combined approach, we believe we're going to get a better product as a result."

Experts say it is too early to know for sure if the combination of teen-to-teen outreach, tougher driving laws and a stricter licensing system will prove successful in the long run.

"We typically want to look at a whole year, but I'm a firm believer that what Illinois did was the right thing to do," said John Ulczycki, executive director of the Transportation Safety Group of the National Safety Council.

In November, the state introduced Operation Teen Safe Driving, an initiative that gave 104 high schools $2,000 to create safe-driving programs, said Brian Williamsen, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Transportation.

"You've got high school students throughout the state coming up with programs that were more inventive than what the professionals come up with," Williamsen said.

Twenty-eight schools judged to have the strongest programs will send teams to participate in a safe-driving program sponsored by Ford Motor Co. Seven of those schools also got $5,000 from the Allstate Foundation for safe after-prom parties.

Enthusiasm for the reduction in deaths "is a little bit unsupported by the evidence," cautioned Rob Foss, senior research scientist and director of the Center for the Study of Young Drivers at the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center. Just as likely an explanation for the reduction is the steep increase in gasoline prices, Foss said.

He praised the 2006 increase in practice time (from 25 hours to 50 hours) and the enhanced graduated driver licensing that began Jan. 1, but said it was too early to tell what effect the tougher licensing will have.

"I'm optimistic that a lot more parents are understanding the issue a lot better than they did a year ago," Ulczycki said. "I've seen this happen in other states that passed graduated drivers licensing laws. It's not just the law itself, it's the whole educational process that goes along with it."